Rare Mary Shelley novel among Spetchley Park auction lots

The 19th Century ivory skull is set to fetch £300-£400

A first edition of a novel by Mary Shelley and a hidden 16th Century painting were among objects to go under the hammer after being found in a Grade II-listed mansion.

Spetchley Park in Worcestershire has been owned by the Berkeley family since the 1600s.

Items collected by generations of the family were auctioned at Chorley's in Gloucestershire.

It has been described as a "collectors paradise" by the auction house.

Spetchley Park was bought by Rowland Berkeley in 1605, but the original building burned to the ground on the eve of the Battle of Worcester in 1651, before being rebuilt in 1811.

It was even earmarked as the headquarters for Winston Churchill in the event of a German invasion during World War II.

Chorley's director, Thomas Jenner-Fust, said a younger generation had taken on the house, which needed modernisation, and had used it as an opportunity for a "clear-out" of its attics and stores.

The Madonna and Child was found hidden in an attic

"You never knew what you were going to find at the back of cupboard or behind something, or underneath something, and it was a treat to be the first people to look at these things for a long time," he said.

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Items sold at the auction included a first edition of The Last Man by Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, first published in 1826, which fetched £6,500, from an estimate of £1,000-£2,000.

It was one of a number of 19th Century Gothic lots along with an ivory skull, which sold for £750.

A late-16th Century oil painting of The Madonna and Child found hidden in an attic, and attributed to Anthuenis Claeissens, received a final bid of £7,500 after being expected to exceed its £700-£1,000 estimate.

Mr Jenner-Fust added: "There are some really interesting things you don't get at other sales, wonderful textiles, interesting works of art like crosses, reliquaries... real curiosities and perfect things for collectors of strange and unusual objects."

Mr Jenner-Fust said members of the Berkeley family were "great travellers and collectors"